The partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald was held at Heathrow airport under the UK Terrorism Act for the maximum time allowed before pressing charges. Amnesty International dubbed the move an unwarranted revenge after Greenwald revealed NSA spy programs.

David Miranda was passing through London en route from Berlin to
Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with Greenwald - the Guardian
journalist who in a series of articles helped Edward Snowden to
reveal the scale of the National Security Agency’s mass
surveillance programs.

Miranda was detained for questioning by security officers at
Heathrow around 8am local time, under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism
Act 2000. Officials held him for almost nine hours without
pressing any charges, which is the maximum amount of time that a
person is allowed to be held under the controversial law.

Miranda told reporters in Brazil on Monday that at least six
agents were talking to him during his detention. “They asked
me questions about my whole life, about everything,” he said.

Officers released him after confiscating all of his electronic
equipment. According to the Guardian, officers confiscated
Miranda’s mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs, and
even his gaming console.

"To detain my partner for a full nine hours while denying him
a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is
clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us
who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ,” Greenwald wrote
in response to the incident. “The actions of the UK pose a
serious threat to journalists everywhere.”

UK authorities did not offer any further explanation, other than
stating that the 28-year-old man was “detained at Heathrow
airport” and “subsequently released.”

The US stated on Monday that it did not request Miranda’s
detention, but that it was aware of Britain’s plan to intercept
him.

"There was a heads up that was
provided by the British government, so this is something we had
an indication was likely to occur," White House deputy
spokesman Josh Earnest said. "But it's not something that we
requested, and it's something that was done specifically by the
British law enforcement officials."

The Brazilian government released a statement expressing grave
concern over the episode. It stated that the measure was
unjustified “since it involves an individual against whom
there are no charges that can legitimate the use of that
legislation.”

“The Brazilian government expects that incidents such as the
one that happened to the Brazilian citizen today do not
repeat,” the statement reads.

Under controversial Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000,
border officers are allowed to detain any person entering or
leaving the UK for questioning for up to nine hours and
confiscate personal belongings for seven days for
counter-terrorism purposes. Legal advice can be requested at
a person’s own expense. However, the examination is not
delayed pending a lawyer’s arrival and refusal to answer
questions might be considered an offense and lead to
arrest. Out of 69,109 people questioned between April
2011 and March 2012, only about 42 were detained for more
than six hours.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has stated that Miranda was a
clear “victim of unwarranted revenge tactics.”

"It is utterly improbable that David Michael Miranda, a
Brazilian national transiting through London, was detained at
random, given the role his husband has played in revealing the
truth about the unlawful nature of NSA surveillance," said
Widney Brown, Amnesty’s senior director of international law and
policy.

MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said
he would ask the police for an explanation about why Miranda was
detained.

“It is clear not only people who are directly involved are
being sought, but also the partners of those involved,” he
told BBC Radio 4. "Bearing in mind it is a new use of
terrorism legislation to detain someone in these circumstances...
I'm certainly interested in knowing, so I will write to the
police to ask for the justification of the use of terrorism
legislation. They may have a perfectly reasonable
explanation.”

Following the “message of intimidation” which Greenwald
says was aimed not only at him and his partner but also at all
journalists, he has promised that “US and UK authorities will
soon see” his defiance.

The Brazil-based American reporter, who broke the news about the
espionage activities of the US and allied governments, recently
revealed that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had given him
at least 15,000 classified documents, adding that the stories he
published so far are just a “small portion” of what is to be
revealed.

According to Greenwald, British authorities did not suspect
David Miranda of any terror links and instead interrogated
him about the NSA reports.

During the trip to Berlin, which was paid for by the Guardian,
Miranda met with Laura Poitras - the US filmmaker who recorded
the famous interview in which Snowden came forward as a source of
high-profile leaks.

The whistleblower, charged in the US with espionage, was granted
temporary asylum in Russia on August 1. After spending more than
one month in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport,
he slipped quietly out of the terminal to an undisclosed safe
location.